Traditionally, the miniaturization of mechanical and/or electromechanical systems has been frustrated by limitations on the manufacture of small lightweight mechanical or electromechanical parts. The intricacy of the parts made their manufacture on a small scale difficult and impractical. In recent years, however, and with the proliferation and increased precision in semiconductor fabrication procedures, many of the mechanical and electromechanical structures in a mechanical system may be replaced by MicroElectroMechanical Structures (MEMS) or other micromachined structures that are fabricated using semiconductor fabrication techniques.
During the fabrication of many of these structures, a sacrificial layer is provided to provide temporary support for subsequent layers. Once the subsequent layers are fabricated, the sacrificial layer is removed using a selective etch, which releases the upper layers. In many cases, the selective etch must remove the sacrificial layer from a remote location, requiring the etchant to reach deeply into very narrow crevices and channels.
In many cases, the sacrificial layer is formed from silicon dioxide or some other inorganic oxide or glass. An acid etch such as Hydrofluoric Acid is then used to remove the sacrificial layer. A limitation of using a silicon dioxide or other inorganic oxide or material is that the acidic etchants often require additional processing steps and can be difficult to perform. For example, to get a Hydrofluoric Acid etchant to flow deeply into small crevices and channels occupied by the sacrificial layer, surfactants must often be added. These surfactants can reduce the effectiveness of the Hydrofluoric Acid.
In addition, the removal of the Hydrofluoric Acid etchant from the small crevices and channels can be difficult. Several rinsing and drying steps are often performed in an attempt to remove the Hydrofluoric Acid from the structure. Even with these additional steps, some residual Hydrofluoric Acid often remains, which can reduce the reliability of the resulting structure.
Another limitation is that acidic etchants such as Hydrofluoric Acid tend to attack some metals such as aluminum. Accordingly, the sacrificial layer must often be either removed before any metal layers are provided, or additional processing steps must be performed to protect the metal layers from the Hydrofluoric Acid. However, even when the metal layers are provided after the sacrificial layer is removed, some residual Hydrofluoric Acid can remain, as described above. The residual Hydrofluoric Acid can emerge during later processing or testing, and damage the metal layers. This can compromise the reliability of the devices. What would be desirable, therefore, is a method for providing and removing a sacrificial layer without the use of an acidic etchant.